The X Factor Lazanistan

The X Factor Lazanistan is a reality television music competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. The "X Factor" refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The series consists of auditions, bootcamp, judges' home visits, several weeks of live shows, semi-finals and the final.

Format
The X Factor is primarily concerned with identifying singing talent, through appearance, personality, and stage presence. Dance routines are also important elements of many performances. Throughout the live shows, the judges act as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from other categories. For each season, each judge is assigned a category and they mentor their three acts individually, with all acts having a shared amount of time with their mentor. Each of the 12 acts also have rehearsal time in the studio with their mentor. In some cases, if a solo artist is not strong enough, the judges will put together a group of solo artists which have potential to be great as a band.

Categories
Since season 1 the categories have been: 0-24 Boys, 0-24 Girls, Over 25s and Groups (including duos).

Stages
There are five stages to the competition:


 * Stage 1: Open auditions (these auditions decide who will sing in front of the judges)
 * Stage 2: Judges' auditions
 * Stage 3: Bootcamp
 * Stage 4: Judges home visits
 * Stage 5: Live shows

Auditions
The first set of auditions is held in front of the show's producers, months before The X Factor is aired. The open auditions are not televised and anyone can attend. The successful auditionees chosen by the producers are invited back to the last set of the audition phase, which takes place in front of the show's judging panel and a live audience. If there are three judges present during the auditions, the act needs at least two "yes" votes (three if there are four judges present) to gain the majority vote. The judges' auditions are held on selected dates and locations in a number of major cities of Lazanistan, and are broadcast over the first few weeks of The X Factor. The show is open to solo artists and vocal groups aged 14 and above, with no upper age limit.

Bootcamps and Home Visits
Bootcamp has two stages: in the first stage, acts are allocated into groups and must perform a song to all the judges with other members of their group, with each act showcasing a few parts of the song solo. Those who pass this stage then must sing again on their own in the next stage in front of the judges. A live audience was added to the second stage from series 4 onwards, the performances at both stages take place at MagdArena. In both these stages, the judges do not give any feedback to the acts after performing, and only deliberate on which six acts to send through after all the performances at each stage are finished.

The producers then assigned each of the judges a category to mentor, and the judges split up for the "Home Visits" round, in which each of them hosted the contestants in their assigned category at a luxurious residence, often scattered around Maia.

The contestants did not know who their mentor would be until they arrived at that judge's house.

During this round, each judge held another round of auditions on location, and then further reduced the number of acts with the help of a celebrity guest.

Live Shows and Winner's Prize
The finals consist of two live shows, the first featuring the contestants' performances and the second revealing the results of the public voting, culminating in one act being eliminated each week. They are filmed at Matildefjord Studios in Matildefjord. In season one and two, the live shows were broadcast on Sunday and Monday nights, but moved to Monday and Tuesday nights for seasons three. In season four, the live shows returned to Sunday and Monday nights.

In the initial performance shows, each act performs one song (two songs each during the Semi-Final and three songs each during the Grand Final) in front of the judges and a studio audience. The acts usually sing over a pre-recorded backing track, and backup dancers are commonly featured as well as stage props. Acts occasionally accompany themselves on guitar or piano. From the second season, each performance show has a different theme; each act's song is chosen according to the theme. The acts' mentors pick the song for them and critique their performance in order to get it perfect for the live shows. A celebrity guest connected to the theme is often invited onto The X Factor, and clips are shown of the guest conversing with the contestants at rehearsal. After each act has performed, the judges comment on their performance. Heated disagreements, usually involving judges defending their acts against criticism, are a regular feature of the show. Once all the acts have performed, the phone lines open and the viewing public vote on which act they want to keep in the competition.

The results are announced during the live decider show the following day, in aid to give the Lazani public time to vote. The two acts that received the lowest number of votes perform again in the "final showdown", and the judges vote on which of the two to send home. If the judges cannot come to a majority decision the result will go to "Deadlock". If the final showdown goes to deadlock, the act with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the competition. The results show also features a number of celebrity guest performers promoting their singles or albums, usually their latest ones. The winner of the show is awarded a recording contract with Royale Music Lazanistan.

Series overview
Contestant in (or mentor of) "Boys" category

Contestant in (or mentor of) "Girls" category

Contestant in (or mentor of) "Overs" category

Contestant in (or mentor of) "Groups" category